Esmeralda Daae: Star Wars Girl
by Jacquelina-Comm
Summary: Esmeralda finds herself in the Star Wars Universe. While always on the lookout for a way back to Earth, she must make a life for herself amidst the stars.


I do not own Star Wars... but you already knew that.

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><p>My head felt like it was on fire. This surprised me, since I knew what both hangovers and migraines felt like, and neither of them felt like this. It felt like someone had gone through and set a blowtorch to my gray matter. Let me tell you, it was not fun.<p>

_Wake up._

I groaned. The voice seemed to be coming from inside my own head.

_That's because it _is_ coming from inside your head._ The voice, distinctly feminine, said in an annoyed tone. _Open your eyes you moron!_

Hesitantly, I obeyed, instantly regretting it as bright light bombarded my sensitive retinas. I instinctively raised one hand in an attempt to block out the painful radiance, only to have my ears attacked by the sounds of thousands of chittering, squawking, howling animals. My skin became aware of the fact that I was sitting up to my waist in water, and my nose was awakened to the smells of swamp: mud, plants and stagnant water.

Where the dickens was I? From what I could see it looked like a Florida marsh, but I guarantee that no marsh on Earth had anything like the plants and critters I saw around me. Critters that looked very, very frightened, if the way they were stampeding was anything to go by.

_Get up, you moron!_ The voice in my head yelled at me. _Hurry up, before you get killed! _

She was lucky I was so incoherent at the moment, or else I might have argued with her. Hesitantly, I began to rise to my feet, water dripping from my drenched clothing, but my head began to pound almost immediately and I ended up on my rear again.

_What are you, crazy?_ Voice asked, sounding a bit frantic. _Get up and run!_

"What?" I asked, still woozy. "Run from what?"

_Run from that!_ Since Voice wasn't actually there, she didn't have any fingers to point, but somehow I still knew exactly which way to look. The rumbling, waterfall-esque noise coming from that direction might have helped in that regard. I followed the sound with my gaze, and my jaw dropped. Several large, orange, tank-like vehicles were heading in my direction, and they didn't look like they were going to stop anytime soon. They were hovering about a foot over the ground, but that didn't look like it made them any less dangerous.

"Oi vey!" I shouted in surprise and fear, once again trying to climb to my feet and run. I settled for stumbling and clawing my way through the marshy, muddy grass, trying to escape by whatever means necessary. "I don't think I'm going to make it." I gasped, hearing the waterfall tanks closing in on me.

_Don't worry; you're about to get some help. _Voice assured me, and a second later a hand grabbed me by the back of my shirt and yanked me to my feet.

"Run!" The man who had "helped" me up yelled. "Hurry! Don't stop!"

The two of us ran through the bog, with me getting hauled to my feet again whenever I stumbled. Personally I'm surprised that I had enough energy to run so far, even with Mystery Man's help, but I guess I could chalk it up to adrenaline power.

I felt like I was going to drop at any moment, and the tanks were still cutting

down the distance between them and us. To my dismay, a new obstacle presented itself in the form of an orange duck-fish-man who didn't seem to get the hint that you were supposed to run from danger, not stand there like an idiot. Another bad idea is to put a death grip on the nearest person (in this case Mystery Man), causing them to become too bogged down to run.

"Get down!" Mystery Man collapsed under the weight of the orange creature and shoved me down to lie beside him. What was he thinking? We were going to be killed! I didn't have the strength to get back up, and closed my eyes with a whimper as I waited for death to come crushing down on me. What happened instead, were my ears nearly blown out as the hover tanks went right over us. It sounded and felt like I was standing right next to an enormous fan, in that the sound was incredibly loud and we were pushed slightly into the damp grass by the pressure (thankfully, we were on a dry spot. Otherwise, we probably would have been pushed beneath the mud.)

The next thing I knew, it was over and Mystery Man was helping me to my feet. I mumbled what might have been "Thank you," but by now I was so dazed that my legs refused to hold me and I ended up sitting down again. Hard. It hurt, but at least my head had stopped burning at some point during the craziness.

_Huh._ Voice commented in a conversational tone. _Who would have thought you could survive by going under the tanks. I was sure it would the pressure would have crushed you._

"Yes, you're very helpful. Thank you." I mumbled sarcastically. I felt drained, like someone had turned me into a teapot and poured out all my energy.

_Yes, well, while you're arguing with me, it seems that your friends are leaving you behind._ Voice pointed out, drawing my attention to where Mystery Man and Duckface were indeed walking away. MM had a quick gait, as if in a hurry to get somewhere.

"Hey!" I yelled after them, and MM stopped to look back at me. I didn't know this guy in the least, but he and Duckface were the only two people here who weren't driving enormous tanks like crazy soccer moms. "Little help here?" I didn't really expect him to come back, since we weren't even acquainted, but I didn't see the harm in trying.

MM stared at me, looking at Duckface then gazing around at the surrounding forest as if expecting someone. Then he sighed, the way my parents did when I asked them to drive me to baseball practice, and marched back over to me.

"All right, come on." He leaned down and wrapped one arm around my waist so that I could lean on his shoulder. As we staggered awkwardly back the way he had been going, he glared slightly at Duckface.

"You could have gotten us killed." He informed Duckface impatiently as we continued on past him. "Are you brainless?"

"Mesa spake." Duckface pointed out as he followed along behind us, as if that was supposed to prove he was intelligent.

MM seemed to agree with me. "Having the ability to speak does not make one intelligent." He said in annoyance. "Now get out of here."

Duckface didn't seem to like this idea, because he tagged along behind us like a puppy. "No no! Mesa stay!" He protested in a strange accent that sounded somewhat like a mix between Jamaican and Italian. "Mesa Jar-Jar Binks. Mesa be your humble servant."

"Humble servant?" I muttered, though neither MM nor Duckface (Jar-Jar now) heard me.

"That won't be necessary." MM replied to Jar-Jar's statement as he continued walking. I was beginning to tire again, and now he was half-carrying-half-dragging me.

Why was I so weak? I never used to tire this easily back home. Granted, I was stronger than I was back when the tank ran us over, but I still couldn't walk more than a few steps.

_Oh, that's simple_. Voice stated, as if I had wondered what 2+2 was. _The bonding between host and Sumbeit tends to be exhausting for the host. _

Say what? Did she mean I had some kind of **parasite** inside me? I didn't like the sound of that. Reminded me far too much of when my brother made me watch _Alien_ with him.

_I am not a parasite!_ Voice sounded insulted. _I'm a symbiot. There's a difference_._ And you'd better pay attention because it looks like stuff is happening. _

No sooner had Voice finished speaking, then MM threw me into Jar-Jar's arms. The duck-man alien caught me clumsily, my weight knocking him back onto his derriere. This was probably a good thing, because some hover-scooters had just arrived and were trying to blast us into smithereens. I missed how they were destroyed, since I was busy trying to disentangle myself from Jar-Jar's long limbs, but I could still hear the zapping sounds as the hover-scooters were torn apart.

Finally, I managed to roll laboriously off the flailing alien, and came face-to-face with a metal, elongated face. I gasped and sat up straight. The drivers of the hover-speeders had been robots!

_Droids, actually_. Voice piped up oh-so-helpfully_. They were also driving those tanks. These particular droids are trying to invade this planet, called Naboo._ _Your new friend is trying to stop them, and in turn they are trying to blast him to smithereens._

'That sounds uncomfortably like that movie my sister made me watch once.' I thought at her. 'It was one of the Star Wars movies, but I wasn't really paying attention. I'm more of a fantasy person than a Sci-fi person.'

_Star Wars?_ Voice sounded flabbergasted. _What's Star Wars?_

Before I could answer, I found myself staring into Mystery Man's face. He was leaning over me and was probably thinking that I had died or something.

"Are you all right, young one?" He asked, his deep, smooth voice concerned. I took the opportunity to take in his features, since my mind had only registered glimpses before now. He was on the younger side of middle-aged, with long, brown hair tied back in a semi-ponytail, a matching beard and kind, wise, brown eyes. He was dressed in brown and tan robes which were matched by those of a young man behind him.

"Master?" The young man asked, peering over MM's shoulder. "Who's that?"

"Esmeralda." I said, before MM could answer. "Esmeralda Daae."

"Can you walk, Esmeralda?" MM asked, putting one hand behind my back to help me sit up.

"Yeah." I sighed. "But not very far. I'm just really weak at the moment."

"Master, are we bringing her along?" Sidekick Boy asked, peering over MM's voice. "We're running out of time."

"We may have to. We can't leave her here, the droids would kill her for sure." MM replied calmly.

Okay, these nicknames were getting annoying. "Um, you two know my name. I think it's only fair that you tell me yours." I pointed out, being as polite as possible.

"My name is Qui-Gon Jinn, and this is my padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi." MM replied, thankfully not looking annoyed at the prodded introduction.

"Nice to meet you." I said. I was about to add that they didn't have to bring me along, since I was already feeling guilty that I was holding them up when they were obviously in a hurry, but Qui-Gon had already hoisted me into a standing position.

"Now, let's get out of here before more droids show up." The older man said, his face serious. Obi-Wan took my other arm so that the three of us could move more quickly.

"More?" Jar-Jar, who, as far as I could tell, had been silent up till now, piped up. "More did you spake?" He sounded nervous, and rightly so. I looked over my shoulder at him, but Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon ignored the alien. This didn't seem to dissuade him, however, and he followed along after us.

"Exsqueeze me!" He called after us as he caught up. "But the mostest safest place would be Gunga City. It's where I grew up. Tis a hidden city."

This seemed to catch Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon's attention, and they paused to look at the Gungan. "A city?" The latter repeated in an interested tone of voice. When Jar-Jar made an affirmative noise, he asked: "Could you take us there?"

"Uh…" The Gungan seemed to reassess his offer, and shook his head. "On second thought, no. Not really, no."

"Oh, give me a break." I muttered, and I could practically feel the annoyance coming off the two men holding me up.

"No?" Qui-Gon repeated. He seemed to do that a lot.

"Tis embarrassing." Jar-Jar said, a pained look on his funny-looking face. "But, uh… my afraid my've been banished. My forgotten. The bosses will do turrible things to me – Turrrrible things to me – if me goin' back dere."

I tensed as the sound of rumbling machines and falling trees sounded in the distance. Qui-Gon turned his face towards the sound. "Do you hear that?" He asked Jar-Jar.

Jar-Jar lifted one long ear to be able to hear more clearly. "Uh-huh." He said, and I flinched as a bunch of birds began shrieking in the background.

"That is the sound of a thousand terrible things heading our way." The older man said.

Obi-Wan released me so that he could walk closer to the Gungan to add effects to his words. "If they find us," he said, "they will crush us, grind us into tiny pieces and blast us into oblivion!" I couldn't help but note that he said that with far too much relish.

I stared at him, then up at Qui-Gon. Would that really happen? I didn't want to die!

_By the Force, you're pessimistic_. Voice groused. _We are not going to die._

'Yes we are!' I screamed back in my mind. I was freaking out, as would you if you were trapped in a strange world with no idea how you got there or how to get back, and you were about to be killed by droids in lots of nasty ways.

_Esmeralda, listen to me_. Voice said steadily, obviously trying to calm me. _We are not going to die. The droids aren't even here yet, and Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are willing to protect you. Stick with them and you'll be fine._

"Esmeralda?" Obi-Wan's voice cut through Voice's and I my eyes snapped up to look into his. "Are you all right? I didn't frighten you, did I?"

I blinked and gulped, realizing I had started crying. I quickly scrubbed the tears from my face and gave him a smile. "Yeah, I'm fine." I said. It appeared that while I was freaking out, Jar-Jar had been leading Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon – with me between them – through the marshes to a small lake. At least the rumbling had stopped.

"How much farther?" Qui-Gon asked. He glanced at me as I pushed away from him to stand on my own feet. My legs were shaking, but at least they held me up.

Jar-Jar pointed at the lake. "Wesa goin' underwater, okiday?"

Obi-wan looked at me as the three of us moved towards the water. "Can you swim?" He asked. I nodded, knowing it would be easier to swim than to walk, and he smiled.

"An' my warnin' you." Jar-Jar continued. "Gungans no likin' outsiders. Don' speck a warm welcome."

"Oh, don't worry." Obi-Wan quipped. "This hasn't been our day for warm welcomes."

What the heck did he mean by that? I decided not to ask, and was glad for the distraction when Jar-Jar leapt into the air with a yell, performing several complicated flips before landing in the water with barely a splash.

"Here." Obi-Wan handed me a long, thin machine about the size of a telephone. I watched as Qui-Gon placed a duplicate device into his mouth and decided it must be like hand-held scuba-gear. "Just breath normally, and you'll be fine." Obi-Wan told me before biting down on his own breathing device. He must have realized that leaving me behind was not an option, and that taking care of me would make the trip easier.

I placed the breathing device into my mouth and followed the two men into the water just as Jar-Jar surfaced. "Yousa follow me now, okiday?" He said happily, before ducking under again.

Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon followed without hesitation, but I paused for a minute to take a few experimental breaths before diving. It was hard to convince my lungs that it was okay to breath in underwater, but when I did it was very easy going. Swimming was easy on my weak body and I caught up to the others without any difficulty.

The sight of an enormous, glowing city took my breath away. It was the most amazing thing I had seen in my life. The buildings were shaped like big, orange bubbles and were set on the bottom of the lake.

It finally sunk in. I really was in another world. This might be a cause for alarm.


End file.
